Impotence of wealth

There is a primitive survival trigger that creates the tendency to collect things that are perceived to be of some intrinsic value. While the perception of value differs depending on the individual, the behavior is the same by accumulating wealth as the hunter-gatherer mode kicks in. The irony in amassing a hoard of shiny things is that, when we reach the end, they have no value, and the time spent collecting them was pointless.